During the debate on the Safe Access to Protected Health Care bill package, I learned Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose) and I have something in common: we’ve both had miscarriages. And we’re both fortunate enough to live in Colorado, a state where our doctors can give us the best medical advice on how to treat them – without abortion bans and bounty hunter laws hanging over our heads.
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) signed the “Safe Access to Protected Health Care” package of legislation into law Friday, and within hours a legal challenge was filed by The Becket Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based, non-profit law firm, on behalf of Bella Health and Wellness (Bella), a Catholic healthcare provider, against SB23-190, which targets the marketing practices of anti-abortion centers and their use of an unproven pill to reverse an abortion.
Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, has issued a ruling to stay the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions. Medication abortions consist of two medications, mifepristone, which blocks the body’s production of progesterone, stopping the pregnancy from progressing, and misoprostol, which causes the uterus to expel the aborted material.
While the Colorado Senate considered the House’s amendments to the “Safe Access to Protected Health Care” package of legislation, members of Colorado for Life, Colorado Christian University, Focus on the Family, the Colorado Catholic Conference, and other anti-abortion groups took part in a “Rally for Life” on the Capitol steps.
Colorado Democrats have introduced a package of three bills that target the marketing practices of anti-abortion centers and their use of abortion pill reversal, expanding legal protections for patients and providers seeking reproductive and gender-affirming health care, and expanding insurance coverage for those seeking reproductive health care.
During the Feb. 17 Colorado House Health and Insurance Committee hearing for Rep. Stephanie Luck’s (R-Penrose) proposed law to require pain medication be administered to fetuses before abortion procedures, Will Duffy, president of Colorado Right to Life, and Jeff Durbin of End Abortion Now testified against the bill.
Wichita, Kansas, is no stranger to anti-abortion activism. In 2009, Dr. George Tiller, a physician who provided abortion services late in pregnancy, was assassinated by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, where Tiller was serving as an usher. Dubbed “Tiller the baby killer” by U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan (R-CA) and demonized by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Tiller was targeted with violence throughout his career. In 1986 Tiller’s clinic was firebombed, and in 1993 he was shot five times by anti-abortion extremist Shelly Shannon.
This year was the second year in a row that Colorado Republicans have attempted to pass legislation criminalizing abortion in Colorado. Rep. Scott Bottoms’ (R-CO Springs) bill, “Abolishing Abortion in Colorado,” was a repeat of former Rep. Dave Williams’ (R-CO Springs) bill in 2022. Both bills featured testimony from Jeff Durbin of End Abortion Now and members of Colorado Right to Life, and both bills died in Democrat-controlled committees.
Three anti-abortion bills were killed in the House and Insurance Committee on Friday. The bills, introduced by Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose) and Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-CO Springs), were part of the annual tradition where Republican legislators introduce anti-abortion legislation that fails to move forward in the Democrat controlled legislature. Last year, testimony in support of bills aimed at ending abortion and collecting additional medical data on abortion patients died after a 12-hour session. This year, bills to end abortion in Colorado, provide pain medication to fetuses during abortions, and provide information about abortion pill reversal were voted down, eight to three, during nearly seven hours of testimony.
Colorado Christian University is marketing itself as an antidote to “woke” culture and progressive values in American higher education that many conservatives have described as a leftist indoctrination of students.
